During 1996, for the first time, Indonesians began to question whether President Suharto’s grip on power was finally slipping after 30 years of near-absolute rule. Riots in Jakarta in late July shook the country. According to an independent human rights commission, five people were killed and some 150 wounded. A prominent independent labour leader, Muchtar Pakpahan, and nine others were charged with subversion in December. The street violence was just one indication of growing uncertainty on several fronts. In October and again in December Muslim rioters burned Christian churches, as well as hotels, banks, automobiles, and shops owned by members of the ethnic Chinese minority, many of them Christian.

There was increasing concern over the 75-year-old president’s health, especially when he made a trip to Germany in July for a medical checkup. Should Suharto not nominate himself for president again when his term ended in 1998, there was no obvious successor. Moreover, rifts were evident in the military, the main pillar of power in the country. In addition, a Roman Catholic bishop in East Timor and an activist living in exile in Australia were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in October for striving to end violence in the former Portuguese colony that Indonesia invaded and annexed in the 1970s. The Nobel Committee condemned the Indonesian government for "systematically oppressing the people" of East Timor. (SeeNOBEL PRIZES.)

Elsewhere in the vast archipelago, activist groups grew bolder in their criticism of Indonesia’s closed political system and uneven development. The government permitted only two opposition political parties, which had no hope of voting Suharto out of office. Of some 2.3 million workers entering the job market each year, only about 300,000 could find full-time employment. Resentment over corruption and the ever-expanding business empires of Suharto’s family and cronies continued to deepen.

The July riots were sparked by a police-backed raid on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party in Jakarta. Supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri--daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia’s still-popular first president--were occupying the building to protest the government’s role in her ouster as party head in June. In regard to Megawati’s dismissal, the court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over an internal party matter.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for June 1997, many activists believed it was time to push for change. They demanded more representative government, a retreat by the military from its central position in politics, a limit of two presidential terms, and even Suharto’s departure. In early July some 20,000 striking factory labourers in Surabaya marched to protest low wages and unhealthy working conditions.

Suharto apparently worried that activists could upset political stability. On September 14 he scolded 300 of the country’s business elite for neglecting the poor. He warned the assembled tycoons that if they did not "voluntarily" contribute 2% of their companies’ after-tax profits to the poor, they could face the taxman’s scrutiny.

Complaints in corporate boardrooms grew louder over such government actions as the exceptional tax breaks given to Suharto’s son Hutomo Mandala Putra to build Indonesia’s own national automobile. Suharto also seemed less capable of controlling his top military officers.

Despite political uncertainties, the economy continued to boom at a 7.5% growth rate in 1996. Inflation dropped to 7.4% in August from a peak of over 10% in January. Indonesia’s trade surplus narrowed during 1996, however, and some predicted the country could be running monthly trade deficits by the end of the year. Indonesia was hard hit by slumps in key export sectors, such as plywood and textiles. The current-account deficit was expected to be 4% of gross domestic product.

The value of approved foreign investment in Indonesia was expected to fall to $27 billion, about 30% below the previous year, although the number of projects was expected to increase. The investment minister blamed the drop in value on the fact that approved foreign investments in 1995 included eight large projects, mainly in the petrochemicals sector. Susan Berfield

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